Multi-rotor aerial drones (e.g. quadrotors) are typically controlled by processors that are encapsulated or otherwise shielded within a body of the drone to protect the processor from rain, moisture, dust or other environmental hazards. The encapsulation of the processor can result in considerable heating of the processor due to heat generated by the processor itself or by other components of the drone. Excessive heating may cause the processor to throttle-down in flight in an effort to reduce the heat, resulting in, for example, reduced frame rates or reduced resolution of video captured by a drone video camera controlled by the processor, or other reductions in overall performance. If the heating of the processor is severe, the processor may shut down in flight. Overheating of the processor can also be hazardous to anyone touching the drone after completion of a flight. That is, the skin temperature of the drone can become too high, exceeding skin temperature limits. Current solutions that attempt to address these and other processor overheating problems include providing heat sinks (which can be relatively bulky and heavy) or processor cooling fans (which can be noisy and waste considerable power). In this regard, adding mini-fans or heat sinks to cool drone components leads to solutions that may be limited in efficiency, add costs, increase noise and/or require additional power. Moreover, if the fan fails, permanent damage can occur.
Consequently, there is a need for an efficient and cost effective cooling system for cooling the processor of a drone or other UAV. Ideally, such a cooling system would include components that are thin, light and inexpensive.